On Wednesday, April 3rd, 2014 the board of directors for the Pratt-Whitney Institute for Collaborative Engineering (PWICE) met for an annual discussion of current and future projects between UTC Pratt-Whitney, Korean Airlines, USC, and Inha University. Viterbi School of Engineering Dean Yannis Yortsos represented USC at the meeting along with Director of Corporate and Foundations Relations Hossein Pourmand. Also in attendance were Media Communications Lab’s Dr. Jay Kuo and Ph.D. student Martin Gawecki, who presented their ongoing work on transient engine gas-path diagnostic systems.

Gas Path Analysis (GPA) is a well-founded and understood aspect of engine health management within the gas turbine jet engine industry. However, state of the art methods are limited by the technology constraints and a focus on steady-state phases of flight, like cruise. Newer engines’ higher sensing capabilities, fleet-wide health data integration, and a need for full-flight analytics will require modern algorithms to approach this problem from a Big Data perspective. Current work on this problem includes developing such comprehensive approaches with the use of machine learning and developing appropriate calibration metrics between real-world and simulated data.

PWICE is an ongoing venture joining industry and academia in the United States and Korea in an effort to promote unparalleled collaboration at the university level along with practical R&D for the aerospace industry. The Media Communications Lab has been a part of PWICE for the last 6 years, having worked on 3 separate projects within the institute.